~ Life is a Journey. A Journey shaped by our Dreams. Our Dreams are inspired by our Imagination.

Our Times – My Youth

I want to do a movie review/analysis of this movie I saw earlier this year. It actually came out last year in August 2015. It is a Taiwanese Movie. (This blog post will contain spoilers because it is meant for readers who have seen the movie.)

The title of this movie is “Our Times,” it is better known by its Chinese title, “我的少女時代,” which directly translates to “The Time of my Girl-Teenage Years.”

So, this movie is a romance film that revolves around teenage love. “Do you still remember your teenage love?” Teenage love is meant to be pure and open-ended. Just like in the movie, when the main female character, Lin Chen-Hsin, goes out of her way to look for something that was always by her side.

A short synopsis of the movie for readers who have not seen the movie, but would like to know what it’s about; and for readers who have seen the movie, and is reading this post:

The story goes along the lines of an Unpopular Girl, Lin Chen-Hsin, who starts liking the Popular Guy at school, Ouyang Fei-Fan. However, within the Unpopular Girl’s class is the Popular Girl at school, Tao Min-Min. The Popular Girl and Popular Guy are acquainted while the Unpopular Girl is still trying to meet him. The twist comes when the Bad Guy of the school, Hsu Tai-Yu, accidentally gets acquainted with the Unpopular Girl.

“Okay, now that we have introduced the names of the 4 main characters, I will jump right into the story. Or at least, how I saw the story.”

Lin Chen-Hsin may not be the smartest, prettiest, or the popular girl in school, but she does have friends, Mei-Mei and Xiao Zhi. And like every other girl at school, she admires the Ouyang Fei-Fan, the popular guy at school who is on the Basketball Team, a model student, and he plays the guitar and sings.

Ouyang Fei-Fan is the popular guy at school. As mentioned, he is athletic, intelligent, and artistic. His is friends with Tao Min-Min, and they are both parents to a stray puppy that they found together. (And it will later be revealed that he was actually great friends with Hsu Tai-Yu from middle school.)

Tao Min-Min is the school’s popular girl because of her beauty, and she has brains. As mentioned, she and Ouyang Fei-Fan are parents to a little black puppy they both found. (In the beginning of the movie we see that she and Ouyang Fei-Fan may have an intimate relationship that is developing to be more than friends. However, later on in the movie, she begins to fall for Hsu Tai-Yu.) She is actually the antagonist.

Finally, Hsu Tai-Yu. He is the gangster, bad boy of the school. The students of the school view him as the School Bully as he goes around fighting other School Bullies and gang groups. (However, we realize throughout the movie that he is not as bad as expected. At least this is through Lin Chen-Hsin’s perspective.)

What I learned from watching this movie is that in our youth, there was that one person/friend that stuck it through with you and stood by your side. Even for someone like me, I had my own “Hsu Tai-Yu.”

Hsu Tai-Yu may be the school bully, but as Lin Chen-Hsin befriends him, she realizes how she should not judge a book by its cover.

At first, she became his friend because of guilt. (She actually sends a chain-mail to Tai-Yu. And not too long after he reads the chain-mail, he gets into an accident.)

Tai-Yu takes the opportunity of their friendship to make her do things for him, such as doing his homework, buying him food, etc

But you know, we find out in the end through Tai-Yu’s perspective that he was only mean to Chen-Hsin because he only wanted to keep her attention. (I guess, he is right. We tend to remember those who were mean to us over those who were nice to us.)

Tai-Yu actually helps Chen-Hsin a lot throughout the movie. He encourages her to stand up for herself. He gives her strength and courage to talk to the guy she likes (Ouyang Fei-Fan).

Together, they team up to get Chen-Hsin with Ouyang. And Tai-Yu “sacrifices” himself, for he pursuits Tao Min-Min to direct her attention away from Ouyang.

Honestly, this is straight out of a drama where the guy friend helps his girl friend be with the guy she likes by taking away the rival girl.

And as most people can predict, the main characters always end up together. (But I would say the ending is a cliff-hanger.)

Chen-Hsin realizes the person she actually likes was Tai-Yu.

As for Ouyang, he begins to like Chen-Hsin. But she realizes that she only admires Ouyang. Those feels were not love.

And all along, Tai-Yu actually had feelings for Chen-Hsin. Even from the beginning where he bullied her into their friendship.

Tai-Yu has successfully helped Chen-Hsin be with Ouyang, and he himself has successfully pursuit Tao Min-Min. (At this point, Chen-Hsin may realize the one she really likes is Tai-Yu but Tai-Yu still believes that Chen-Hsin likes Ouyang…)

I think for everyone who has watched or has not yet watched this movie will realize that in your own youth/childhood, you can step into Chen-Hsin’s footsteps. (Whether a guy or a girl.) You had that one crush that was out of your league, and that one friend who you can always talk to. Then there was the “mean girl” person who always got in your way or made your life difficult. (And on top of that, you had other friends who were in the picture, but did not really know what was going on with your true feelings.)

Now, a few personal words from me: “I wrote a letter to that friend of mine. My “Xu Tai-Yu” from my High School times. We are not lovers, but we are good friends. He is trustworthy and reliable. There were many times in High School where he stepped in and helped me out. (I wish I can say the same, but I don’t think I was as great or will ever be as great as he was to me.)”

Thank you for reading! I hope this post has somewhat interested you into wanting to watch this movie. But most importantly, I hope this post has shed some light onto you, my readers, that we should cherish our friends. Those who were always around, may not be around forever. One day, you will realize that this person needs to leave and you never took the effort to acknowledge his/her good intentions. Not exactly the idea that you both need to be lovers, but the idea that we should thank our friends.

“Thank you, my Friend.”

And always, Keep on DayDreaming! ❤

Link to Source of the Cover Picture: https://aviddreamers.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/our-times-poster.jpg?w=640